Cartels

News about Cartels, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Dec. 24, 2014

Release of memo by Mexican authorities describing complicity of San Fernando police in murders of 268 migrants by Zetas crime outfit to National Security Archive, Foundation for Justice and Article 19 is small victory for transparency advocates; country's police investigations and court system are notoriously opaque. MORE

Dec. 17, 2014

Austrian forensics experts say they will need at least two months to see if they can identify victims of apparent massacre of 43 trainee teachers in Mexico; victims were abducted by corrupt police officers, and their bodies incinerated by drug gang members. MORE

Oct. 22, 2014

Juan Francisco Saenz-Tamez, accused of leading Mexico's Gulf Cartel, is arrested in Edinburg, Tex; authorities unseal indictment charging him with conspiring to traffic cocaine and marijuana into the United States and launder millions of dollars there; crime analysts note that it is unusual for suspected organized crime leaders from Mexico to be apprehended in the United States. MORE

Oct. 10, 2014

Suspected drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes is arrested in northern Mexican city of Torreon; he is accused of running the Juarez ring with an eye for killing and a thirst for allies; his arrest is seen as symbolic amid national police scandal. MORE

Oct. 10, 2014

Op-Ed article by GlobalPost correspondent Ioan Grillo contends mass grave containing charred corpses of 28 student protesters in Iguala, Mexico, shows how drug cartels have taken over chunks of government apparatus; maintains case highlights deep problems in Mexican institutions needed to uphold laws, and is embarrassment for Pres Enrique Pena Nieto, who has been working to change country's violent image. MORE

Oct. 2, 2014

Authorities in Mexico say Hector Beltran-Leyva, leader of one of Mexico's largest drug cartels, has been captured, giving Pres Enrique Pena Nieto another high-profile victory against organized crime. MORE

Sep. 11, 2014

Justice Department officials report that federal agents conducted series of raids across fashion district of Los Angeles, sweeping more than 70 locations, arresting nine people and seizing at least $65 million in cash and assets from businesses with ties to Mexican drug cartels. MORE

Jul. 29, 2014

American prosecutors claim Hugo Carvajal, former head of Venezuelan military intelligence, was on payroll of Colombian drug lord, invested his own money in drug trade and coordinated shipments of cocaine; unsealed federal indictments shed light on accusations of ties between Venezuelan military and law enforcement and Colombian narcotics traffickers. MORE

Jul. 13, 2014

Op-Ed article by author Sonia Nazario contends that vast majority of child migrants from Honduras are traveling to the United States to flee violence; maintains what US is seeing on its borders is a refugee crisis, not an immigration crisis; describes how rise of violence is due to dominance of foreign drug cartels, particularly ones from Mexico. MORE

Jun. 25, 2014

Fernando Sanchez Arellano, head of the once-mighty Arellano Felix drug cartel, based in Tijuana, is arrested while watching Mexico’s soccer team play in the World Cup, MORE

Jun. 15, 2014

Questions surround 2011 arrest of now 90-year-old Leo Sharp, who was most prolific drug courier for Sinaloa cartel in the United States; Sharp, who had been a very successful hybridizer of day lilies, was arrested after car he was driving was found to contain 104 kilos of cocaine; it is unclear what made him turn to drug trafficking. MORE

Apr. 25, 2014

Mexican gang leader Arturo Gallegos Castrellon is sentenced to life in prison for his role in ordering the 2010 murders of three people associated with the United States Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, killings that rattled both sides of the border as drug violence engulfed the city. MORE

Apr. 2, 2014

Mexican authorities say that they have killed Enrique Plancarte, second-in-command in Knights Templar drug gang; killing adds to string of successes that seems to leave only one drug boss still at large. MORE

Mar. 26, 2014

Many people and companies believed to be part of money-laundering operation for Mexico's largest drug cartel, run by Joaquin Guzman Loera, continue to operate despite appearing on suspect list; arrest of Loera marked victory for American and Mexican authorities, but cracking financial network sheltering cartel's money may prove challenging. MORE

Mar. 13, 2014

Hipolito Mora, public face of Mexico's vigilante movement against drug cartels, is detained as a suspect in the death of two men working with a rival self-defense group; detention heightens fears that the self-defense movement, which began as a citizen push for peace, is now morphing into another layer of violent conflict over money and power in the state of Michoacan. MORE

Mar. 10, 2014

Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, Mexican drug kingpin presumed dead for over three years, dies in confrontation with military; officials publicly confirm his death. MORE

Mar. 6, 2014

Mexican judge denies the drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as El Chapo, an injunction against any extradition to the United States. MORE

Feb. 26, 2014

Law enforcement officials say arrest of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman Loera will probably not end the Sinaloa cartel's activities nor make a lasting dent in availability of illegal drugs; while capture has been hailed as a landmark in the fight against organized crime, experts say the cartel has transcended Guzman. MORE

Feb. 24, 2014

Arrest of world’s most wanted man, Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin Guzman Loera, upends assumptions about the impunity of Mexican mobsters; capture also overturns long-lowered expectations of what was possible in Mexico's drug war; details of operation show that arrest came down to tight bond between Drug Enforcement Administration and Mexican navy, well-kept secrets and fair amount of luck. MORE

Feb. 23, 2014

Mexican marines and police take Joaquin Guzman Loera, one of world's most wanted drug kingpins, into custody in early morning raid in Mazatlan, Mexico, without firing a shot; authorities were aided by information from United States Drug Enforcement Administration, immigration and customs officials and United States Marshals Service. MORE

Jan. 16, 2014

Mexican officials in Michoacan State, region where vigilantes are battling drug cartel gunmen, are facing decision on whether to disarm the loosely organized groups or allow them to continue fighting. MORE

Sep. 6, 2013

Jose Trevino Morales, brother of Mexican cartel leaders Miguel Angel and Oscar Omar Trevino Morales, is sentenced to 20 years in prison for running a money laundering operation for his brothers from a horse ranch in Lexington, Okla. MORE

Aug. 19, 2013

Mexico City Memo; Mexican Pres Enrique Pena Nieto has overseen the capture of two top drug bosses over past month, suggesting he is no longer quite so opposed to the American-led strategy of taking down cartel kingpins. MORE

Aug. 18, 2013

Mexican government says major military operation in country's northeast has led to the capture of Mario Armando Ramirez Trevino, leader of the drug-trafficking Gulf Cartel. MORE

Jul. 17, 2013

Mexico's long and bloody drug war may have reached crossroads with capture of feared Zeta crime boss Miguel Angel Trevino Morales. MORE

Jul. 16, 2013

Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, leader of the Zetas, one of Mexico’s most violent and feared drug organizations, is captured by Mexican marines in a city near the Texas border; arrest is seen as response from Mexico's new government to questions over whether it will go after top organized crime leaders. MORE

May. 25, 2013

Eduardo Arellano Felix, last of four brothers accused of operating Mexican drug cartel, pleads guilty in San Diego to money laundering and investing funds gained from violating drug laws. MORE

May. 24, 2013

Mexican drug cartel commander Julian Zapata Espinoza pleads guilty in federal court to ordering the ambush and killing of American immigration agents, including Jaime Zapata. MORE

May. 10, 2013

Jose Trevino Morales, brother of two top leaders of one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels, is convicted in Austin, Tex, of buying racehorses to hide illegal drug profits. MORE

Apr. 21, 2013

Profile of Robert Coogan, Brooklyn-born priest who serves as chaplain for a state prison in Saltillo, Mexico, run by the Zetas, Mexico's most feared drug cartel. MORE

Apr. 17, 2013

In her first visit to New York, Marisol Valles Garcia watches a “poetic impression” of her life story, which includes four months as the police chief in a community controlled by drug cartels. MORE

Feb. 5, 2013

Obama administration officials met with senior aides to Mexican Pres Enrique Pena Nieto before Pena's inauguration to express alarm at indications that Gen Moises Garcia Ochoa, suspected by United States to have links to drug traffickers, might become Mexico's next minister of defense; back-channel communication provides rare glimpse into US government's deep involvement in Mexican security affairs and highlights tensions and mistrust between the two governments. MORE

Dec. 9, 2012

Waters off Southern California, as result of security crackdown along Mexican border, have been teeming with smugglers in last few years, as drug cartels seek new avenues to move illicit cargo into the United States; smuggling episodes have increased fourfold since 2008, with more than 200 smuggling vessels spotted by American law enforcement officials during past year. MORE

Nov. 3, 2012

Oklahoma's annual fall horse show and auction features more than 300 quarter horses that had been seized in federal raid; authorities say horses were used by Mexican drug cartel Zetas to launder proceeds of their multimillion-dollar drug operation. MORE

Oct. 10, 2012

Mexican Marines kill Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, leader of the Zetas, one of the country's biggest and most ruthless drug gangs, but armed men steal his corpse before authorities can even publicly identify it; Mexican officials struggle to explain how a major blow against the nation's criminal gangs could suddenly turn into an illustration of their persistent strength. MORE

Sep. 5, 2012

Mexican Navy arrests Mario Cardenas Guillen, the presumed top leader of the Gulf Cartel, one of the country’s largest and most powerful criminal groups. MORE

Aug. 11, 2012

Authorities in Spain say Spanish police officers working with the FBI have halted an attempt by a major Mexican drug smuggling and distribution ring to establish a European operation MORE

Jul. 12, 2012

Newspapers El Manana and El Norte in northern Mexico have both been attacked with gunfire and grenades in less than a week; attacks on the news media in the country, in the throes of a drug war, are seen as an effort to silence reporting on criminal groups. MORE

Jun. 23, 2012

Mexican and American authorities say they will check DNA and photographs of suspect whom they introduced as the presumed son of the drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman Loera; lawyer and wife of the detainee claim he has no relationship to Guzman Loera, the leader of the Sinaloa drug gang. MORE

Jun. 17, 2012

Patrick Radden Keefe article explores the inner workings of the billion-dollar business of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, among the world's most powerful drug traffickers. MORE

May. 19, 2012

Mexican government arrests three high-ranking army generals Tomas Angeles Dauahare, Roberto Dawe Gonzalez and Ricardo Escorcia Vargas for allegedly aiding drug cartels; case is sure to rattle American law enforcement and military officers, who often work warily with their Mexican counterparts, typically subjecting them to screening for any criminal ties. MORE

May. 19, 2012

Eight suspected members of Mexican Gulf drug cartel are being detained during investigations into the discovery of 49 dismembered bodies on northern Mexico highway. MORE

May. 17, 2012

Honduras is a growing focus of American counternarcotics efforts aimed at drug cartels that have increasingly sought to use its ungoverned spaces as a way point in shipping cocaine from South America to the United States; murky circumstances surround recent firefights in which Drug Enforcement Administration agents accompanied Honduran police in battles against cocaine smugglers, leaving as many as four people dead. MORE

May. 14, 2012

Police find 49 decapitated and dismembered bodies along highway in Nuevo Leon, Mexico; Zetas drug cartel is believed to be responsible for the killings. MORE

Mar. 18, 2012

Members of the Cazares family in Matamoros, Mexico, have attempted for months to goad local authorities into investigating the kidnapping of five relatives, as criminals involved in the abductions flaunt their wealth openly in the town; case is emblematic of Mexico's overwhelmed and dysfunctional justice system, under which many criminals enjoy impunity even after six years of military assault on drug cartels; reported abductions have jumped by more than 300 since 2005. MORE

Feb. 25, 2012

Saturday Profile of Dr Julieta Castellanos of Honduras, university leader who has emerged as an unlikely hero after the murder of her youngest son by Honduran police; Castellanos has been waging a public war with drug cartels and their grip on Honduras's institutions; many credit her with inspiring a call for change in a country that has turned into one of the most violent areas in the world. MORE

Feb. 22, 2012

Investigators question guards in ongoing inquiry into gang fight at Apodaca prison outside Monterrey, Mexico; it appears that as many as 16 guards and officials have been implicated in melee in which guards released members of the Zeta gang and then opened cells of members of rival Gulf Cartel, resulting in fight in which 44 prisoners were bludgeoned, beaten or stabbed to death. MORE

Feb. 15, 2012

Mexican federal police capture Jaime Herrera Herrera, a major operative for Mexico's most wanted drug trafficker, Joaquin Guzman of the Sinaloa gang; capture is part of a string of arrests that suggest the authorities have redoubled efforts to capture Guzman and break up the gang he commands; Herrera is also wanted by the United States on drug trafficking charges. MORE

Jan. 19, 2012

Mexican drug war is spreading to the country's interior and south, trend believed to be linked to a widening turf war between Mexico’s two biggest criminal organizations; violence in areas once thought safe affects both sides of the border, putting more pressure on political and law enforcement officials who are already struggling to show that their strategies are working. MORE

Members of a drug gang arrested in connection with the disappearance of 43 college students told investigators that they had killed the students and burned their bodies, the Mexican attorney general said.